Health Objectives for the Nation
Weapon-Carrying Among High School Students --
United States, 1990

From 1980 through 1989, more than 11,000 persons died in the
United States as a result of homicides committed by high
school-aged youth using firearms, cutting instruments, or blunt
objects (Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports,
Supplementary Homicide Report Files, unpublished data, 1980-1989).
Firearm-related homicides accounted for more than 65% of these
fatalities. Immediate access to a potentially lethal weapon,
especially a firearm, may increase the likelihood that a lethal
event would result from a violent altercation (1,2). This article
presents the prevalence and incidence of self-reported
weapon-carrying among high school students in grades 9-12 in the
United States during 1990.

The 1990 national school-based Youth Risk Behavior Survey
(YRBS) is a component of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance
System, which periodically measures the prevalence of priority
health-risk behaviors among youth through comparable national,
state, and local surveys (3). A three-stage sample design was used
to obtain a representative sample of 11,631 students in grades 9-12
in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the
Virgin Islands. Students were asked as part of the YRBS: "During
the past 30 days, how many times have you carried a weapon, such as
a gun, knife, or club, for self-protection or because you thought
you might need it in a fight?" and "What kind of weapon did you
usually carry?" In this report, incidence rates* describe the
number of times, per 100 students, that weapons were carried during
the 30-day period. Students were not asked if they carried weapons
onto school grounds.

Nearly 20% of all students in grades 9-12 reported they had
carried a weapon at least once during the 30 days preceding the
survey (Table 1). Male students (31.5%) were significantly more
likely than female students (8.1%) to report having carried a
weapon. Hispanic (41.1%) and black (39.4%) male students were
significantly more likely to report having carried a weapon than
were white (28.6%) male students. Of the students who reported
having carried weapons during the 30 days preceding the survey,
25.0% said they did so only once; 32.2%, two or three times; 7.4%,
four or five times; and 35.5%, six or more times.

An estimated 71 weapon-carrying incidents occurred per 100
students per month (Table 2). The incidence of weapon-carrying was
approximately four times higher for male (116 incidents per 100
students) than for female (27 incidents per 100) students. The
incidence was highest for Hispanic (162 incidents per 100) male,
followed by black (154 incidents per 100) and white (100 incidents
per 100) male students. Students who reported carrying weapons four
or more times during the 30 days preceding the survey (8.7% of all
students) accounted for nearly three fourths (70.9%) of
weapon-carrying incidents.

Among students who carried a weapon, knives or razors (55.2%;
95% confidence interval (CI)=51.3%-59.1%) were carried
significantly more often than clubs (24.0%; 95% CI=20.7%-27.3%) or
firearms (20.8%; 95% CI=17.0%-24.6%). Most students who reported
carrying firearms carried handguns. Among black male students who
carried a weapon, firearms (54.2%; 95% CI=41.1%-67.3%) were the
most frequently carried weapon. Among white and Hispanic male
students who carried a weapon, knives and razors were the most
frequently carried weapons (54.7% (95% CI=49.0%-60.4%) and 46.9%
(95% CI=38.9%-54.9%), respectively).
Reported by: Div of Injury Control, National Center for
Environmental Health and Injury Control; Div of Adolescent and
School Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion, CDC.

Editorial Note

Editorial Note: Data from the 1990 YRBS indicate that approximately
one of every five high school students carried a firearm, knife, or
club at least one time during the 30 days preceding the survey.
Approximately one of 20 students carried a firearm, usually a
handgun. Black and Hispanic males--those students who were most
likely to have carried potentially lethal weapons--have also been
at highest risk for homicide victimization (4).

One of the national health objectives for the year 2000 is to
"reduce by 20 percent the incidence of weapon-carrying by
adolescents aged 14 through 17" (objective 7.10) (5). The 1990 YRBS
baseline data indicate that 71 weapon-carrying episodes occurred
per 100 students during the 30 days preceding the survey. To
achieve the year 2000 objective, this incidence rate must be
reduced to 57 episodes per 100 students per month.

Plans to achieve this national objective and prevent
weapon-related deaths and injuries among youth should address the
following considerations. First, because most weapon-carrying
incidents are attributed to a relatively small proportion of
adolescents, programs to reduce weapon-carrying should target
frequent weapon carriers, as well as their peers and families.
Second, because firearms, particularly handguns, are the weapon
most highly associated with fatal events, weapon-related fatalities
will be prevented most effectively by reductions in
firearm-carrying. Third, because the risk for being assaulted is an
important motivation for weapon-carrying (6), programs should
attempt to reduce the perceived or actual risk for victimization
that underlies the need many students feel to carry weapons for
self-protection.

School systems have employed various strategies to confiscate
weapons and deter students from bringing weapons onto school
grounds (7) including random locker searches, walk-throughs with
metal detectors, and policies requiring clear plastic or mesh book
bags so that weapons cannot be hidden easily. Because
weapon-carrying also occurs outside the school, however, these
strategies should be combined with curricula and counseling
programs that teach students nonviolent conflict resolution skills
and discourage weapon-carrying (8). Complementary educational and
legal strategies are also needed at the community level. For
example, educational campaigns may help parents reduce their
children's access to weapons (e.g., storing weapons and ammunition
separately and under lock and key) and communicate to their
children the potential consequences of weapon-carrying. Moreover,
the apparent effectiveness of prohibiting public firearm-carrying
for reducing firearm-related homicides (9,10) suggests that
additional legal sanctions may also deter adolescents from
firearm-carrying.

References

Zimring FE. Is gun control likely to reduce violent killings?
University of Chicago Law Review 1968;35:721-37.

Deutsch SJ, Alt FB. The effect of Massachusetts' gun control
law on gun-related crimes in the city of Boston. Evaluation
Quarterly 1977;1:543-68.

O'Carroll PW, Loftin C, Waller JB, et al. Preventing homicide:
an evaluation of the efficacy of a Detroit gun ordinance. Am J
Public Health 1991;81:576-81.
*The incidence rate was calculated by adding the number of times
each student reported carrying a weapon during the 30 days
preceding the survey and dividing this sum by the total number of
students. The number of weapon-carrying episodes per student was
then multiplied by 100 to determine the incidence rate per 100
students. Students who replied that they carried a weapon two or
three times were assigned a weapon-carrying frequency of 2.5; four
or five times, 4.5; and six or more times, 6.

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